8.9-magnitude earthquake in Asia

[JeeberD]

More than 3000 dead...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,000 in Asia



JAKARTA, Indonesia Dec 26, 2004 — The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,000 people in five countries.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Sri Lanka's prime minister said 1,500 people were killed in that country. Officials in India reported 1,000 dead. More than 400 were reported killed in Indonesia, 120 in Thailand and 15 in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 quake hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

The effects of Sunday's quake rippled across the region, as towns were crushed by floodwaters and fishermen were swept out to sea.

In Sri Lanka some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter the prime minister's office said 1,500 people had died. Officials said some 500,000 people were displaced.

An Associated Press photographer near Colombo, Sri Lanka, counted 24 bodies in a stretch of four miles. Rows of men and women were standing on the road asking if anyone had seen their family members.

A wall of water slammed into southern India, killing about 1,000 people, mostly in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said. Beaches were turned into virtual open mortuaries with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore.

Residents of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states said 12-foot storm surges slammed into shore.

"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen."

In Indonesia, hospital and local officials said the death toll had reached 400.

Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicenter of the undersea quake off the western coast of the island's Aceh Province, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage on the island.

"The ground was shaking for a long time," resident Yayan Zamzani told Jakarta's el-Shinta radio station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."

Some 120 people died in popular southern Thailand resorts, the Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry reported. The center said people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with 16-foot waves.

Police and rescue workers in Malaysia said 15 people were killed. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily evacuated from high-rise hotels and apartments in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and other cities after most of peninsular Malaysia felt tremors caused by the Indonesian quake.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

Associated Press writers Dilip Ganguly in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and K.N. Arun in Madras, India, contributed to this report.

[Crapshoot]

yeah- its crazy now. The effect in India and Sri Lanka due to the tsunami's is significant right now.

[RaginCajun]

Fox is reporting 9,000 dead or missing! Wow!

[Dutch]

Wow.

[sterlingice]

When I saw a 8.1 the other day in Antarctica, I was impressed by how big that was and glad it didn't hit anywhere populated. But to see one nearly 10x as strong hit a populated area... ouch.

SI

[Galaril]

May god bless those who have been affected so sad.

[sachmo71]

8.9 Richter is just unimaginable. I remember when I took a class about earthquakes and volcanoes, and they talked about the level of destruction from each level. At 8.9, I believe even "earthquake proof" construction begins to fail.

[Zippo]

oh my god, my mother just came back from Indonesia on a business trip this week.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

8.9 Richter is just unimaginable. I remember when I took a class about earthquakes and volcanoes, and they talked about the level of destruction from each level. At 8.9, I believe even "earthquake proof" construction begins to fail.

I have lived over here in Asia for a decade a good part of it in Japan and there are no buildings that will stand up to 9.0 earthquakes.

[Crapshoot]

Aye. A lot of my family is in India but thankfully in Delhi, not near the coasts. But still, this can hurt.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

My god I I fear the numbers will be in the 20k when all is said and done,

[tanglewood]

11,500 confirmed dead at the moment, and still very much rising, according to the BBC.

A sad day.

[oykib]

A friend of mine told me that the average tsunami that hit these coastlines was about ten meters. Can you imagine an over thirty foot wall of water coming down on you.

It's vacation time here in Japan in a couple of days. MOst of the airports in these low-lying areas have been rendered inoperative.

The coastal cities were also pretty much totalled.

That death toll's gonna keep climing. It's a real tragedy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

A chilling first-hand account from the southern coast of Sri Lanka, written (apparently) by a BBC reporter who happened to be there when the wave hit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4125581.stm

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

A chilling first-hand account from the southern coast of Sri Lanka, written (apparently) by a BBC reporter who happened to be there when the wave hit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4125581.stm

That was creepy.

Sometimes I take the services that we have in this country for granted. Those people might have to do all of the recovery themselves.

[Eaglesfan27]

That was a creepy story. A wall of water coming down on me is #1 or 2 on my biggest fears. This is so tragic.

[Galaril]

20,900 unbelievably tragic.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

It's just a matter of time before a ''western'' region is hit. I cant even fathom the devestation a tsunami would cause if Seattle or SF were slammed.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

I cant even fathom the devestation a tsunami would cause if Seattle or SF were slammed.

Hmmmmm.... I'm sure this was written with good intentions. Hope it doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

[tategter]

My brother-in-law works on an oil rig that just moved to somewhere in Indonesia. The company says all their rigs in the area have reported-in safely, but we are still waiting word from him directly. Scary stuff.

[stkelly52]

A little over a year ago I moved away from Penang, Malaysia. One beach that we often went to hang out at was hit pretty hard. It is Christmas break there so a lot of my friends who are still there go spend Chrismas in Phi Phi Island or Phuket in Thailand. I am still waiting to hear word on how everyone is doing there.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Hmmmmm.... I'm sure this was written with good intentions. Hope it doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

Just a guess, but I'm thinking the death toll would be 5x as high or more if it hit a really densely populated area like he mentioned. 22K is a lot of people, but hitting California in certain spots could mean 100K+

SI

[Arles]

A good friend of mine was arriving in India (to visit his family) on the day of the quake. I hope he's OK.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Hmmmmm.... I'm sure this was written with good intentions. Hope it doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

I didnt mean anything by it. Just happened to use 2 major cities along the coastline. I could have easily used Oceanside, San Diego or Cancun.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Looks like a number of well-known athletes were vacationing in the general area affected by the disaster, some in the harder hit areas, others in places like the Maldives that caught a lighter blow. The details are at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=1953925
but the names include:
skiing gold medalist Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, former tennis star Thomas Muster
soccer stars Zinedine Zidane, AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi, Milan captain Paolo Maldini, Juventus defender Gianluca Zambrotta. Also two other Milan players, Alessandro Nesta and Cristian Brocchi, Emre Asik, a defender with the Turkish team Besiktas and Bayern Munich's Hasan Salihamidzic.

[korme]

thats terrible

[Neon_Chaos]

I'm just thanking my lucky stars that the Philippines is not adjacent to the Indian Ocean.

[stkelly52]

I just got word that everyone that I know back there seem to be OK. The school that I taught at is right on the beach, and the lower campus was flooded and the wall that seperates the campus from the beach was destroyed. Good thing school wasn't in session.

[JeeberD]

Excellent news, stkelly.

I finally saw video of it on the news tonight, and it was some really scary stuff...

[Glengoyne]

This is the biggest Natural Disaster that I can recall in my lifetime. I fear the numbers of dead that we are hearing might pale in comparison to those that are eventually realized. I still can't imagine that there was little or no warning in places even hours after the Quake had hit.

I have a friend and co-worker who just moved his family back to Indonesia. I haven't heard from him since this happened, but I'm hoping that it is because the infrastructure is still hosed. Email and Phones are on the fritz along with most other basic services I imagine.

[Neon_Chaos]

CNN has 26,000 dead/missing right now.

[Galaril]

The scope of this thing was unbelievable. Now it is up to 40,000! and still climbing. Just to put this in perspective 50,000 japanese died at Nagasaki when the Atomic bomb was dropped there in 1945.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Looks like a number of well-known athletes were vacationing in the general area affected by the disaster

Speaking of celebs, supermodel Petra Nemcova was fairly seriously injured in the tsunami and her boyfriend is still missing...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ot/quake_model

[clintl]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

It's just a matter of time before a ''western'' region is hit. I cant even fathom the devestation a tsunami would cause if Seattle or SF were slammed.

There would be huge amounts of property damage, but with the warning systems in the Pacific and the fact that it's fairly easy to get to high ground quickly along most of the Pacific Coast, the loss of life would probably be a lot less. And yes, Seattle and San Francisco are at risk. There is a subduction zone of the same type that ruptured in the Indian Ocean that runs north from about Cape Mendocino to about the southern tip of Alaska along the Pacific Coast.

[WSUCougar]

Well, Seattle is positioned on the inland waters of Puget Sound. I'm not sure what the effect would be there in terms of a tsunami-type scenario.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

It's just a matter of time before a ''western'' region is hit. I cant even fathom the devestation a tsunami would cause if Seattle or SF were slammed.

One thing to remember is that we have oceanic sensors that would notify us of this well in advance. In fact, I read today that the US had sensors in Hawaii that picked up this tsunami and sent emails to areas hit. The problem was that many of the emails were ignored.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Well, Seattle is positioned on the inland waters of Puget Sound. I'm not sure what the effect would be there in terms of a tsunami-type scenario.

I saw a special on Discovery one time, about what would happen to London if it were hit by a tidal wave. Basically, the inlet caused the wave to pick up force as it came in, causing more damage then would have happened if it were to hit dead on. Not sure if Seattle would experience the same problems.

Before, it was an interesting puzzle. Now...it's just creepy to think about.

[Qwikshot]

Well, we almost had a near disaster when the hurricane almost hit Louisiana head on, so imagine if it were a tsunami instead...

I don't know where faultlines are, but really, anything is possible and can happen.

This is a great tragedy.

[Qwikshot]

dola:

some of the images I'm seeing at nbc10.com of the tsunami hitting certain areas and caught on video or camera...it's just frightening.

[Senator]

hxxp://staff.aist.go.jp/kenji.satake/animation.gif

[WSUCougar]

Estimate is up to 50,000 dead now...

[Crapshoot]

actually, its looking like 60,000 now. Please do what you can to help - this is scary, scary shit. Im a little worried, since I have extended family in the area I havent' seen for years, but wow.

[korme]

This is much more big than 9/11 death toll wise, but I fear no news sites or shows will be mentioning this in a week.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

This is much more big than 9/11 death toll wise, but I fear no news sites or shows will be mentioning this in a week.

I think you're wrong. I was amazed at the lack of coverage of it early on, but the death toll is too high to ignore now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

I think you're wrong. I was amazed at the lack of coverage of it early on, but the death toll is too high to ignore now.

Time will tell, but I believe Shorty is probably not far from being right on this one.

Checking the list at http://www.disastercenter.com/disaster/TOP100K.html

The current count of 52,000 doesn't even crack the Top 50 natural disasters in the past hundred years. The list definition appears to included: famine, epidemic, flood, drought, typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanoes.

Even if you discount the difficulties in getting strong t.v. footage from long-term events like famine or drought, since 1970, more fatalities were recorded from:
May 31, 1970 - Peru - Earthquake - 66,794
April 30, 1991 - Bangladesh - Cyclone/Typhoon/Hurr. - 138,866
July 27, 1976 - China - Earthquake - 242,000
Nov. 12, 1970 - Bangladesh - Cyc./Typ./Hurr - 300,000

FTR, I'm not looking to diminish the devastation of the current crisis at all.
I'm strictly looking at the numbers because of the issue of media coverage being raised & trying to find some comparisons. Given that the U.S. coverage (based on headlines) is already shifting toward "12 Americans dead" instead of "50k+ killed), and that's during the slowest news season of the year, I imagine this story will "have legs" for another 7-14 days at most and then won't really be a blip on the U.S. media map again until it garners some votes in the "Top Stories of 2005" lists that are compiled this time next year.

[WSUCougar]

76,000 and still rising rapidly.

[Anthony]

i saw some amatuer footage of the wave, i'm not impressed. i don't know how that wave could have caused 70k+ deaths. it sucks that so many people died, but i was expecting a Hollywood-type monster wave.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i saw some amatuer footage of the wave, i'm not impressed. i don't know how that wave could have caused 70k+ deaths. it sucks that so many people died, but i was expecting a Hollywood-type monster wave.

Water is a very powerful thing. Tsunamis are only hundreds of feet tall in Bad movies. The reason this is such a problem is that in many of the areas that were hit, the max. elevation is only a few feet above sea level. A lot of of the coastal plains of Shri Lanka, Indonesia, and possibly Thailand are actually below sea level. That is why the Cyclones(Hurricanes) are so devastating in these places.

As to the unimpressiveness of the "wave". A lot of the reported deaths are from blunt force trauma. In other words people slammed by the wave against other objects. A good number of the drownings were caused by people being knocked unconscious or tangled in debris that the wave had thrown them into. FWIW less than 12 inches of flowing water is strong enough to move a loaded dump truck sideways. So while a ten to twelve foot surge of water may look unimpressive on video, I'm fairly certain it would get your attention in person.

Edit: to add that there are a lot of people in the region that live on small islands. Imagine what a 10 plus foot wall of water does to an island with a maximum elevation of 15 feet. EVERYTHING is swept out to sea.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I think when all is said and done the total will be about 150k-maybe even 200k. Indonesian officials are just now going into the remote provinces hit had. and god only knows how many died in Kenya and Somalia.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Now over 90,000 deaths...

And that is just from the tsunami proper, now people will start dying from diseases and epidemics, hunger, thirst...this is the largest natural disaster in recent world history...